SANTA MONICA - Is Will Smith angling to be Superman?
No. But the actor is spending the early part of this Willennium mulling a project that would find him hanging around phone booths about as often as the quick-changing Man of Steel.
"Phone Booth," in fact, is the name of the flick being eyed by Smith. Today's Daily Variety says the actor/rapper is in talks to star in the thriller about a guy (Smith) who picks up a ringing phone and suddenly finds himself on the run from a sniper.
The project's in the early stages -- there's a script but no director. But 20th Century Fox, the studio developing "Phone Booth," is hoping it'll get the movie made -- with Smith -- before the A-lister moves on to the planned Muhammad Ali biopic.
COOK COOKS: Love works in mysterious ways. Like, sometimes you fall for a guy (maybe, two) as you're trying to figure out who beat another dude bloody and left him on the side of a road.
At least that's the way it works in "Conspiracy," according to Variety. "Conspiracy" is the next project up for "She's All That" star Rachael Leigh Cook. Cook will play the girl who juggles two guys in the so-called "love triangle thriller." Shooting is scheduled to begin in May.
Cook's on a roll for roles of late. A couple of weeks ago, she signed up for the planned live-action "Josie and the Pussycats" flick.
BACK IN THE GAME: Unemployed pro-football bully, er, coach Mike Ditka is now an employed broadcaster. The tough-talking taskmaster has inked a deal with CBS Sports to join its "NFL Today" studio game-update show in the fall. Ditka previously worked for NBC Sports in between stints in the NFL (after he won the Super Bowl with the Chicago Bears and before he lost a bunch of games with the New Orleans Saints).